Personal Responsibility

I interviewed a young man yesterday and we ended up discussing his past law violations. This applicant was in his early thirties, was a full-time firefighter, and shared ownership in a business with some of his co-workers. His biggest problem was that he had a DUI a few years ago. This wouldn’t preclude him from moving up but he was still embarrassed by the incident and he took full responsibility for his dumb actions. He took Personal Responsibility, what a novel concept and a concept that unfortunately has become rather archaic in today’s society. We have become an “it’s not my fault” generation, and it’s only getting worse. We see this from our politicians, our relatives, our teachers, our sports stars. What role models they have all become. Duante Culpepper faced charges of having sex in public on a boat. I would hope that his lawyer would focus on the fact that Mr. Culpepper didn’t do anything wrong, but, no, his lawyer focused on the fact that the district attorney didn’t charge a Caucasian male with similar charges. I guess there’s a law out there that states “if you don’t charge everyone involved then the incident must have never occurred”. Wow, I hope we caught all the Nazis otherwise I guess we can’t charge, try, and convict anyone for war crimes! I also have a relative that was stopped for speeding three times within the first six months of her receiving a driver’s license. Did she take personal responsibility and pay the tickets and maybe rethink her driving practices? Nope, she passed the buck, blamed the officer, and weaseled her way out of each one. To some of you that might seem a triumph. To me that’s just plain pathetic. I know I shock my bosses when I say I messed up or I forgot. Why don’t you join me, they’ll respect you more for it.